The Office of Administration confirmed the payroll tax deferral authorized by President Trump through an Executive Order, will not be implemented for state employees.
Chris Moreland, spokesman for the Missouri Office of Administration issued a statement as follows:
"We do not believe our state employees would be advantaged by doubling their tax obligations between January and April of 2021, in exchange for temporarily reduced taxes for three months this year. We reached out to a variety of business organizations, employers and other states to see if they were participating and most have elected not to participate. For these reasons we will not be participating in the payroll tax deferral."
The U.S. Department of the Treasury issued clarification following the Executive Order that the payroll tax deferral would be optional for employers. The deferral would allow payroll taxes to be deferred until the first quarter of 2021, but would be due at that time unless Congress acted to exempt the amount deferred. Without further action, employees would see a boost in their paychecks now, but have to repay the taxes early next year.
Associated Industries of Missouri polled the organization's Tax Committee, comprised of more than 200 tax professionals in tax law, accounting and other firms across Missouri to determine if employers were going to observe the payroll tax deferral. Not a single employer indicated they were implementing the deferral because of the potential problems and tax liability it would create for their employees.